I know that tapping into all that WW1 stuff around at the moment should create some natural traction.

But I do wonder if this..

Will be seen as a tune free version of this..

Not to mention, I wonder if people who think about things a little less, might react a little adversely to something as serious as millions of men giving up their lives, in service of selling turkey and tinsel.

Winning Christmas is really important commercially and much of that can come from making people feel something profound, but I question the relevance here, the 'sharing' present element feels too bolted on.

Borrowed interest can be really powerful, but you need to get the relevance. I wonder if folks might like the ad (if they can't remember Macca) but not attribute it to Sainsburys.

November 12, 2014

I read something or other from the APG, a summary of one of their speakers events.

Someone made the point that while there is an established link between creativity and effectiveness, there is less of a link between 'strategy' and effectiveness.

The evidence of creative payback comes from linking performers in the IPA Databank to creatively awarded campaigns.

The evidence of lack of strategic payback comes from the lack of APG Award winners in the IPA's.

But this is highly flawed..............

First, the IPA Databank is made of those who had the data that proved effectiveness. Mostly, those that could pay for, or had econometrics in house.

This is a very small sample of ALL communications campaigns.

Moreover, they tend to conform to what the IPA is looking for - prove traditional media is alive and well.

Which brings me to creatively awarded campaigns. Most creatively awarded campaigns are not 'effective'- let alone have won an IPA. And what drives creative awards is rarely stuff that would excite the non-creative community.

This is a little like the APG Awards. They are not really about effectiveness, they're about showing how clever you are. Hugely post rationalised case studies built on what other planners might like to hear.

You could say that creative awards and APG Awards are specialists talking to themselves, basically showing off to each other.

One final point, coming back to the IPA Awards. I'd argue that this is the best we have at showing strategy, only in that they tend to outline a clear problem, strategy and then claimed effect.

At their best, they define a clear problem and role for comms to judge results against. Which is really the basis of good strategy.

But proving the benefits of having people who's primary role is strategy? That goes well beyond a final sales affect or whatever the payback measure is.

From internal perspective, there is the role as buffer between suit, creative, client, media buyer, digital strategist and whoever else. By defining a clear jumping off point for everyone.

There is the role of non-threatening sounding board for everyone.

For clients, there is the role of someone who cares about the business. Not the work, not the plan and not the agency profit.

There is help with the 'sell'. Most agencies talk bollocks, I've often thought that planners make the right thing easy to buy and easy to sell on to the board for clients and such. They make it simple, understandable and compelling.

The (much hated by planners) but much appreciated role by everyone else of workshop facilitator.

I'm saying that much of the value of a strategy person isn't just in formal ROI. It's making life easy for everyone else.

I sort of know the stuff I've done that has 'worked'. I know the stuff that hasn't. You just know, so do clients.

Evaluation is critical and should never, ever be dismissed, but I'd argue the value of a strategist is been dismissed because they do less strategy and more 'ad tweaking' or they focus on communications problems rather than how comms can solve BUSINESS problems.

Or they are hidden away from the client, or don't want to meet the client that often. Or hide in their ivory tower until it's time to push out the brief.

Or they think they're the only one who can do 'strategy' v liberating the thinking of everyone around them.

I guess I'm saying it's the intangible as well as the tangible benefits of a planning type that need to be taken into account.

And it's down to planners to get their hands dirty, be generous, ego free and do what's needed to be wanted in the room.

November 06, 2014

It doesn't matter how many times you change jobs, the first two weeks are all about mouth shut, ears open, working out who can sort IT for you, remembering names, making friends with reception and office managers and nodding a lot while you work out what on earth everyone is talking about.

October 22, 2014

Most recieved wisdom about society in England (and the UK to some extent) describes a nation that finds it hard to express emotions.

It drives our obesession with owning a home (to shut out other people) and our distaste for public transpot (being thrown together with strangers).

But that doesn't mean we are devoid of emotion. Humans need to feel, they need to express themselves, it's part of who we are.

It's just that we used to express this in what we believed in, what gave us ballast and comfort, by way of our institutions.

The Empire, The Church, the monarchy, our constitution and democratic tradition, our industry, our education system, even The Unions.

In short, we expressed our emotions through symbols of what we believed in.

But for a variety of very complex reasons, this stuff doesn't have the role it once did.

We're a mostly secular nation, without an Empire, with an uncertain sense of our place in the world, where the monarchy isn't revered like it was, where teachers, politicians, the judiciary, the police and other cornerstones of our old beliefs are, at best mistrusted and at worse treated with disdain.

So it's little wonder we have found new ways to come together, new hooks to hang our feelings on. Football is the perennial expression of this, something to belong to, somewhere to feel.

But then there is the resurgence of big Saturday night TV (X Factor etc), the very un-British national grief at the death of Diana, the way we grasp at social media to belong, the way we use music and musical tribes to express ourselves and, unfortunately, our obsession with materialism. Many people believe in the awesome power of the Mulberry bag lot more than they should.

There's the middle class obsession with cycling, the love of driving, the way certain people born in th 1970's still love Star Wars. Lots of ways to try and feel and express emotions, now the big instutions and sense of shared beliefs has dissapated.

Which brings me to work, specifically working in agencies and such.

Work has the potential to matter more. I enjoyed Alain De Botton's The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work and the idea that, despite the fact that our daily toils matter little in the grand scheme of things, but the illusion that they might can deliver great comfort and meaning in our lives.

But the problem with many agencies is that they can be pretty good at creating meaning for their clients (if only to get them noticed in a sea of indifference), in some cases giving a sense of purpose to the staff there - but pretty useless at doing this for themselves.

There are exceptions of course, you know quite clearly what some outfits believe in and there is a real sense of everyone grafting towards a clear purpose.

But the majority can seem like it's a perennial treadmill in service of profit margins, status reports and even worse, simply not getting made redundant if you lose some clients.

Or who can work the hardest and stay the latest.

For a sector that is now competing with tech industries, the city, gaming companies and everything else that is probably seen as more rewarding and certainly better paid, you'd think we would be better at creating organisations that feel greater than the sum of their parts.

October 17, 2014

It wasn't always thus, we had the familiar late teens rocky patch when we struggled with re-adjusting to 'he's not quite man, he's certainly not a boy anymore' thing.

What really frustrates me is how I didn't respect him as much as he deserved until I was going through some of the stuff he did.

Working for a living.

Thinking for two instead of one when you get married.

The terrifying responsibility of looking after the wellbeing of your children and the sacrifice and joy that brings.

Every decision suddenly loaded with implications, the way work can never be about ego or personal growth in the same way, it's about buying shoes and food.

You cannot know what you're Dad is going through until you experience it yourself.

I only know now how much he loved me, what he did (and does) for me now I feel the same way about my own children.

And you realise they were winging it, as uncertain and basically using The Force as much you.

It's the same in the office. There were some people in high places when I was younger that I'll never forgive. There are others I'll never be able to thank enough.

I understand them all better now. And respect them a lot more.

Because we're all winging it at work too. Anybody who claims to 100% know what they're doing is a charlatan, or at least self-deluded.

The salary gets bigger, the responsibilties and stakes grow perhaps, especially when the salary pays for shoes and school books, not just rent and beer, but the general Making Things Up as You Go Along persists.

October 16, 2014

After agencies and marketing in general consigned me to the scrapheap.

No prizes for guessing that was a body of good work.

I still want to leave something, but it's nothing to do with the vain pretensions above.

I still believe in doing great work, because I know it has a greater effect, but as I increasingly find myself tasked with guiding more junior people, I find what excites me is leaving behind some great people.

As some of the interesting people that have worked for me or been daft enough to listen to my advice become great senior planners and beyond.

I want to generate people who are great, and nice at the same time.

I have worked for, and with some exeptional people. To tell you the truth, many of them were not that great to be around.

Many of the heroes I got to meet in the flesh were disappointing people.

But just as many were super generous, super nice and great to be around.

I know the argument that great talent tends to be difficult, but I just don't buy it.

I do believe we should expect the best from each other. We should expect each other to try hard, to never accept OK, to be honest even when the truth hurts. I believe in mutual tough love.

I don't believe anyone has a right to be arrogant, to bully people, to not take the time to care about how people feel, to kidnap their entire life by making them work 12 hour shifts every day and generally make people's lives hell.

I certainly don't believe people should be dismissed becasue of where they might have/not have worked and what they worked on.

Most of Weiden and Kennedy Portland's original staff, the founders of maybe the best agency - whatever discipline you choose - came together because no one else would hire them.

AMV/BBDO, arguably the most enduringly successful UK creative agency has a reputation for being non-ruthless.

A ‘slow hunch’ is much more valuable than a Eureka moment. Flashes of insight rarely happen, most great innovations are the result of graft.

Of edit, précis and distillation.

A connected, open and collaborative group is always smarter than a lone thinker.

The best ideas come from building on the inventions of others.

Peer behind a Darwin, Einstein or even Google and you’ll find a great body of thoughts and ideas from other people they recombined into something greater, over period of time where, along with talent and genius, there was a lot of hard work and patience.

Which also means that where you work and think is just as important as HOW you work and think. Environments that naturally throw a lot of people together, with a strong culture that encourages them to share ideas and collaborate, these are the hotbeds of the great leaps forward.

Which is why Manchester is such a great place to work if you’re in media and marketing. Because good ideas pay back.

We know from all sorts of sources that innovations and creativity pays back disproportionately – the IPA Databank for a start - and the city I work has long been an engine of ideas and innovation.

Going back to Johnson’s book, cities has always been hotbeds of ideas and innovation. The sheer density of people and the buzz this creates simply makes things happen.

Communities of skilled and like-minded people spark each other and create a critical mass.

It’s just as true of San Francisco and digital innovation today, as it was Florence and the birth of the Renaissance in the 14th Century, or philosophy in BC Athens.

And it has certainly been true of Manchester. This dense city with its open, cheerful and generous culture was where John Dalton’s theories paved the way for modern chemistry. It was at Manchester University that Rutherford discovered how to split the atom. More recently, graphene was discovered here.

In the Midland Hotel, just around the corner from where I work, Rolls first met Royce.

We have seen the snowballing of communities and movements here too.

Manchester was the cradle of the world-wide Co-operative movement, feminism, the first professional football league and the Guardian.

Culturally, Manchester birthed Coronation Street, and, at the other end of the spectrum, it was where Charlotte Bronte sat down to write Jane Eyre.

While Joy Division and their later incarnation, New Order, along with my beloved Smiths, sparked a movement of Manchester music that created The Stone Roses the Charlatans and later Oasis I don't like Oasis but you can't deny their impact).

It feels like the Manchester media and creative scene has its own special community today. The BBC produces much of its output in Salford, next door to ITV, and with all the important media owners here too, we have a thriving, collaborative culture where we can bounce off some of the best innovators in the business.

I think what makes Manchester special is our tight knit media community, constantly feeding of the cultural buzz of the city. This is a city that has always driven things forward and right now, it feels like we’re doing this more than ever.

October 07, 2014

I was asked by someone recently what planning was like in the North of England.

Someone from a very good London agency, good clients etc, looking for a better quality of life.

Here's what I said...

What you need to prepared for, in general, in the creative side of things at least, is that you just won't get the same kind of clients and do the same kind of work.

You'll find though, that while there are less big TV campaigns, there are lots of really interesting, more integrated projects. You'll need to be good at getting how channels fit together and creating strategic platforms for IDEAS, rather than advertising ideas.

That can be really interesting. Especially when the silos between discipines are not like they are in a London outfit. Or between outfits even .

But prepare for a certain lack of sophistication. Not much, but you might find that a few folks are a bit complacent and don't have a big enough frame of reference of what good looks like these days. But that's ace, it's a chance for you to have some impact.

But then again, you'll need to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.

While suits will be suspicious of you and creative types will see you as an unnecessary evil at first, if you can help suits with the client relationship in non-threatening way, while helping creatives get their head around the complex media choices - and give them a great springboard -generally mucking in and being generous with your ideas and freeing up the skills of others, it can be really rewarding.

But you'll have to prove yourself. More than someone from around here. No one will take your word for it about anything. But good places will give the chance.

So choose your agency wisely.

There are less of them and much less planner roles.

Good planners are always sought after, but perversely, the good jobs don't come up much. So make sure you've found out what the culture is like, if it fits your general world view and you like the people.

Because you might end up there for a while.

And some places ARE horribly 'regional'. The kind of places with the creative director dressed head to toe in All Saints, who thinks he can do the strategy, not to mention the writing and art direction, when really, he's an okay designer. The kind of place with the head of clients services or MD who has only ever worked on small regional clients and don't really get it either. This is fine of course, it works for them. It won't for you!

Coming back to that 'blur' between disciplines. Even at a big London place like yours, you'll have found the media folks trying, and doing, more of the core comms planning and even content. It's really happening out here.

That's why I've ended up in a media agancy and have found it really enjoyable. Planning folks are naturally curious and get bored quickly. Grappling daily with the sharp end of new media innovations and the realities of the modern media landscape is tremendously interesting. And working directly with Google or another media owner, the real experts at communications that captures the imaginations of people.

Nothing is more stimulating than that. You get to brief creatives, but the creatives are real content experts!

So, if you want to move up North, the place with a real COMMUNITY, is Manchester. There are great places elsewhere, but less concentration of organisations.

And if it's on the cards, if you want to muck in, if you're prepared to take people with you, if you choose your employer carefully (watch out for the complacent lot) and might even consider a different species of agency...

You'll find that job satisfaction and quality of life are not mutually exlusive.

October 06, 2014

But not even Daddy escapes the darker elements of her current stage of development.

Namely, the power of repetition.

When it's time to brush her teeth, Evie miraculously loses the power of hearing.

Ask her ten times and nothing. Diddly squat.

Until she get's bored not hearing you and just leaves the room.

When the tables are turned, when she wants TV on, despite knowing full well it has been switched off until after tea time, she'll ask over and over until you are trembling with the need to give in.

Or when she wants to know what's for tea, and doesn't want it to to be boring chicken, she asks for pizza over and over, even while she shovels forkfuls of the fown passed her - butter wouldn't melt - lips.

Most of advertisers are like Evie when she wants something. Over and over, no let up in stalking you, even with hateful re-targeting these days until you can take no more.

But so are most consumers when the roles for Evie are reversed, evolving a fantastic ability to filter out unwanted rubbish, even when it's right in your face. If it's a mobile display ad that freezes the site, like Evie leaving the room, we'll just leave.

Impacts/impessions/reach figures are not a measure of efficiency or value. They're usually a sign of inneficiency.

There is a calm fury to a true craftsman. The restless perfectionist who's work is never done, it just that time has run out.

I used to love John McEnroe, all waspy wayward genius and volcanic rage for perfection. But he couldn't control his passions - blowing up in his face as much as carrying him to even greater feats.

Compare that to the steely grace of a Federer, or the relentless intensity of a Nadal. Not an ounce of energy wasted, eveything in service of the next shot being even more perfectly weighted and judged than the last.

Or the solitary sculpter chipping away as his work slowly reveals itself.

Talent is common, the years of practise and dedication in the pursuit of the the perfection that will never be reached, that is rare. And it doesn't come cheap. Even rarer is the ability to keep that unrelenting focus. To never stop trying until the job is done, in fact, never finishing it, just having to let it go.

Planning is like sculpture. From the chaos of information, you're trying to cut out the rubbish, chipping away bit by but until you get something that looks usable. Then the real work begins. Edit, precis, distil, re-write, sometimes re-start, until you go from good to great and sometimes, even moderately happy with it.

It's with a heavy heart in many ways, I get attached to places and people quickly, but I was covering maternity leave and my brief sojourn is coming to an end.

I don't think I'd cover maternity leave again. The uncertainty is one thing, but leaving people you like is difficult.

That said, I'm bloody excited about where I'm going. The people I've met are ace and I'm going to be doing some interesting stuff. I'm very lucky to be honest.

Like most times I've moved, it's going to be a challenge, but I do think careers are like sharks, you need to keep moving forward or you die.

Adjusting to working in a media led agency was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But this year has been one of the most rewarding after the initial pain of getting to know what on earth I was talking about.

I've only just found out what a TVR is (only kidding).

This feels like another terrifying leap forward but, in many ways it was the easiest series of job interviews ever as two out of three were really chats about road biking punctured with the odd bit about the work.

October 02, 2014

More recently, I have been seriously riding a road bike for around two years, but only commuting for one. Riding in the city is tricky, but the problem with fast bikes is you don't want to slow down, you weave in and out of traffic, you jump red lights.

You are not brave. You are stupid.

So I'm glad I got knocked off my bike in February. It wasn't my fault, but twinges I get from my poor neck even now tell me to not be an arse on the road, not when I'm surrounded by tons of very hard metal.

Painful experience in the job is so invaluable too. You need some planning scars to remind you not to be so daft. You might well be brilliant and a veritable genius, but if you haven't failed miserably, or felt like a complete numpty any number of times, you're not ready.

The scars from creatives who found out the clients' feedback was really your feedback.

The data you conveniently left out that contradicted your argument. Then you got found out.

The strategy you wanted to do because it was cool, rather than right. That got through and bombed.

That pitch.

That client.

The clever digital stunt thing that no one actually saw.

The time you tried to shaft the partner agency.

The time you trusted the partner agency.

The best work you've ever seen being eviscerated by bad research.

The bad work that got through because of research.

The idea you wouldn't change, but were then too proud to alter when you thought about it.

Get some scars. Get some wisdom.

But don't let it stop you trying new things and moving forward.

It's just a lot easier to move forward when you've been knocked back a few times.

September 22, 2014

This post about 'Would You' reminded me of one my favourite campaigns for police recruitment.

"Could you?"

Simple insight, we respect the hell out people who do what we cannot, in service of a simple problem - quality recruits, not quantity.

Great media thinking. Get to the chosen few by making them feel great in front of everyone else and putting off the undesirables at the same time.

Which brings me to a point about the merits of positioning the audience, rather than positioning the customer.

Now I don't do much 'brand positioning' stuff these days, now that most of what I do is comms planning. Which suits me fine as I don't really believe brand positioning is that useful externally.

Sure, internally for tone of voice consistency, media behaviour and all that jazz, but people really don't care how a brand is positioned and according to most of the data from Byron Sharp, they couldn't tell you what it's position is anyway, not even how the brand is different.

The only ones that can are the ones that matter little to growth, the wierdos that are loyal beyond reason. Not the lighter buyers who bring growth.

I don't believe most folks ever understood 'Just Do It'. The tag was so distinctive, it lodged in the brain. No one got what the hell 'The Future's Bright' meant, it just stood out.

As did '1984'. But in this case, just like Crazy Ones, in fact, just like 'Could You', it did the neat trick of not positioning the brand, but the kind of people who bought it.

Some of the most succesful campaigns ever focus more on behavioural reinforcement.

Not some trite mirroring of an insight or any of that rubbish, they play back an aspirational image of who their audience would like to believe they are, or could be. Usually resolving some deep tension in their lives.

Like Herbal Essences today, affirming a modern woman's right to choose her identity rather than conform to the expecations from all sides.

I reckon this approach unlocks a more integrated approach, by focusing on some shared attitude or behaviour with the customer (or something the customer would like to believe), lending itself to more social media and ideas customers can play a part in - the loyalists that might add some amplication I mean of course.

It's certainly less arrogant and self-absorbed than the usual 'tell people about yourself' approach to brand marketing.

Let's face it, who would you rather want to spend time with? Someone who talks about themself or someone who is more interested in you and what you care about?

Don't get me wrong, a brand needs a strong point of view (much more useful as distilation than an 'essence' or 'proposition') but it's so much more powerful if it's articulated- and the media is then targeted- as collusion with the hopes, dreams, issues and fears of your customers.

The ultimate reinforcement campaign in my view is Lurpak. It's only butter, but it's the butter for foodies.

And look at the Economist, who neatly position their customers as more informed and therefore more succesful. But the creative us only half the story. David Abbot's writing was without peer of course, but the media buy was genius. A niche audience targeted through outdoor was horribly inneficient, but not when the small audience was celebrated in front of the great unwashed and it became 'self selection'.

While this great stuff from Chrysler neatly positions their luxury car drivers as hard workers, not pampered banker types - and taps into the unspoken American belief in grit and hard work.

So next time you get a brand position to work with, ask yourself WHO is the customer, why does the brand admire them? What could that mean and how could it get people talking?

An 'in between' worlds for thousand upon thousands of interactive this and social media stuff, that no one ever bothered with.

Digital tumbleweeds doomed to spend eternity in limbo where no one can be fagged to do interact with them, yet no one can be bothered to put them out of their misery.

But it's not just digital. There are thousands of integrated campaigns out there that were crushed underfoot by tracking studies, much-too-late rushes of common sense and, more importantly, no shifts in sales or behaviour.

Spoof campaigns that folks didn't really were spoofs. 'Cultural strategies' that never inspected the culture properly and a general shower of work that just didn't connect.

All these doomed souls, that somehow got through approval processes and even pre-testing. Made and signed off by perfectly normal human beings that forgot to ask themselves the simplest of questions. "Would I..?"

Would I take this campaign seriously?

Would I really give up enough attention to understand this spoof was ironic?

Would I really upload a video of myself?

Would I really share that with my peers?

Would I take a fizzy drink seriously as route to eternal happiness?

For some reason, when most of us walk though the doors of out places of work, we forget how much we hated our commute, how much we don't pay attention to marketing, how important our time, family and friends are, how much we hate Truview ads and re-targeting.

We think people will do the strangest things, stuff we never do ourselves.

Because we fall for the myth that people care about brands.

We believe the trend guys telling us that people want to co-create with brands.

We believe that young people want brands to be authentic, when really, as ever, they just notice the ones that are cool. Look at the queues in Primark. Does any of this lot care about authentic Primark is? Nope,just that they can get high fashion for buttons.

We believe the lies of segmentation studies that artificially make people who are very similar very different.

We believe it's all about earned media and that no one cares about telly anymore. Even though telly is more efficient that ever.

Layers of self-delusion, or even worse, disrespect to people out there.

Resulting in a shadow world of spectres unable to find peace.

The ghosts of our hubris.

Who's fate could have been avoided, if we could all just say, "What would I really think/feel/do?"

September 16, 2014

It was a great experience where I went to different agencies to hear different points of view on various bits of the job. Every talk was by a celebrated planning director, but I got a lot out of being around other inexperienced planners on our project task.

None of us has a clue, even though some thought they did.

Which is why the best piece of advice on the whole course came from George Bryant.

"It takes seven years to get the experience you'll really need, but then you'll found your voice".

Seven years. A bloody long time before you can really fly solo.

But think about what you need to survive in the job...

A working knowledge of research, what is can achieve, the strengths and weaknesses of methodologies. The ability to do some of your own moderation.

A deep knowledge of how brand communciations work. Not just what you have read, what you have been involved in. Accross as many clients and media you possibly can.

Lots of practise at handling all kinds of individuals in other agencies.

Even more at building relationships with clients.

A working knowledge of psychology and behind that, all sorts of broad knowledge about popular culture, and general wierd stuff.

Knowing how to build a trusting relationship with creative folk, media folk and digital folk.

Knowing instinctively how agencies tick, how traffic works, how things get commisioned, bought and made. How investment teams work in media agencies, what developers do in digital areas.

The stress of a pitch.

Handling campaigns that fail.

The big make or break presentations.

Dealing with new brooms in clients companies.

The new boss you can't stand.

The juniors you find impossible to manage.

And then of course, instictive knowledge of the basics in the job. Various models of brand positioning (really sorry), writing a strategy, comms planning, knowing how media works, evaluating creative work, assessing content plans getting stuff through research..and on it goes.

To be honest, seven years is only the start, because you never stop learning. The industry changes, culture changes, media changes.

This kind of experience does not come cheap.

I'm not a believer in long hours for the sake of it. But this is not a desk job and it's not 9-5. The best people I've worked with simply work harder than other people.

They have standards and stick to them.

Their work is never finished, deadlines just mean they have no more time to improve it.

They take the time to actually go out and meet the people they are selling clients stuff to.

They know how to switch off, but allow themselves the chance to notice stuff that might spark new thinking all the time.

They keep up with the latest thinking in the industy.

But they read everything and and anything, in the hope that 1% might end up useful - and nearly always more powerful than the industry stuff everyone reads.

Talent helps, but it's the application that matters. Anyone who believes otherwise of themselves are kidding themselves, or hanging around the wrong people.

So I spent the day with my little girl yesterday. Evie is nearly three and not ready for nursery, while our eldest has just started school.

It was a lovely day. We only went to look at the fish and the parrots at the garden centre, saw the farm and bounced like loons on the trampoline. QWe read books and painted, along with some hardcore chasing of course.

And just chatting.

The kind of stuff we do most summer weekends, but this time, no older brother just her.

So it means the world.

Because it can be difficult with two, you need to divide your attention equally. No need to divide the love of course, but we're learning both need time on their own with one or both of us. Evie came second but will never be made to feel second.

And I want to hold on to every single memory of her before she goes to nursery and loses every last trace of being a toddler. It goes so quickly, with her even quicker.

Looking at some of the old pictures of Will at her age, it's painful sometimes. He's started school and the slow decay of his innocence has begun.

He's more fun than ever, and I'm enjoying seeing his mind unfold.Will has a great imagination and is proving to be really creative, like Daddy was actually. At the same time, it's difficult to see the beginnings of introversion, which will be great for hime in some ways, but I know how difficult that will be and want t help him in every way I can.

We have a great time though.

But it's hard to look at the pictures of that chubby little mass of chestnut hair and planet sized grin, from a couple of years ago,and not miss it sometimes.

There's no dodgy 'what this means for brands or planning' I'm afraid, it's just on my mind. All I might say is that you'll never be able to comprehend the waves of joy and sorrow that assault people with children until you have them yourself. Another reason why the worship of youth in this industry can be a bit daft.

To the point when I usually get his new book as soon as it is published. Forget paperbacks, I want it now.

Over a number of years, he's built up quite a following for largely writing variations on the same them.

A lonely man with unrealised ambitions, who cooks a lot of spaghetti, has a lost love and a past he cannot reconcile, with a new, enigmatic girl in his life, meanwhile a parallel world full of possibility begins to bleed into this one. There is a lingering sense of sadness and loss of what could have been, with a coming to terms of what is and what could be.

It's never boring because there is so much invention in every page. Every book is a surprise and delight, yet it always feels like coming home.

I think brands have something to learn from this.

I've often found that 'brands as people' is too artificial, not to mention that a rigid 'essence and values' model is just too limiting, especially for a fast moving media landscape like we have today.

But I've never bought 'brands as conversations' and 'relationships', which all the data tells us is, as far as generating business growth, hogwash.

I do like the idea of brands thinking of themselves more as content creators and less as advertisers. This shouldn't be news to anyone - the best advertising has never felt like an 'ad' it has always rewarded the viewer - but it's fair to say that more and more of what we do needs to add value where it shows up and what people are looking for.

But of course, we also know that brands need to build consistent, yet distinctive. Continously interesting, yet familiar.

I venture being more like a Murukami, with a big flexible theme, rather than a tight, never to be messed with brand triangle/onion/key.

I reckon brands should think of themselves more like authors than advertisers.

You know what you'll be getting from Murukami, a Phillip Roth or even a Stephen King or Hillary Mantel.

You will be entering a familiar world in which you'll be entertained and surprised .

In fact, you enter a particular world when you're listening to Radio 4 or watching HBO.

Maybe that's what we should start asking if we were an author, what are the constants in how we tell our story. Or what is the equivalent to 'Radio 4-ness' or 'HBO-ness'.

I'm not saying that people are sitting and waiting for our stuff (and I'm a heavy Murukami buyer, most folks will have read two of his books bet). But when we do stuff that hopefully get's us noticed by folks that don't care, it needs to build up a picture, a world, over time.

If you like, boil down any Lego construction, no matter how amazing, it's made of the same simple collection of bricks.

August 08, 2014

I feel very lucky to be a planner/strategist or whatever you fancy calling it these days. I find it continually interesting and challenging and have come across some lovely, talented people.

But there are some things about the job that drive me up the wall. Tiny next to upsides of the job - anyone doing this job is incredibly fortunate to be doing this rather than real work.

Bu just like the only who can moan about my mother in law is my wife, I reserve the right to good naturedly point out the increbibly daft.

1. The tried and tested methodology of using human relationships as a metaphor for how people buy brands. You know, stuff like 'creating brand love'. 'Like marriage the secret is to show you care'. When the most appropriate human relationship for how most people buy brands is the annoying stalker who won't leave you alone no matter how much you try and ignore him.

In fact it's not even that. It's that person in meeting you know you've met, you recognise the face but can't remember much about.

2. The habit of talking about brands like they're people. It's OK up to point of course, but like any 'model' it's only there as a representation, not fact. Loads of scientists have models of how stuff works, but when new evidence or insight comes to light, they develop the model.

A rigid brand onion no one can mess with, based on a tenuous comparison between an intangible impression in folks' heads and real, capricious human behaviour seems plain daft.

3.The worship of the brand per se. Too many planning folks seem to hide under the comforting blanket of brand scores, rather than actual business performance.

It's lovely not actually having to prove you sold anything, but eventually just shifting salience etc will get you fired, even the biggest, dumbest client companies.

4.Intelligent fools. You know, the poor sods who have been taught that complex language and even more complex powerpoints gives them gravitas and makes them look clever. It really doesn't .

5.The over-use of culture. It's quite right when planning folk bring cultural insight to the table. You know, what matters in real lives rather than fake focus groups. But while the context of real lives to frame a task is a must, there's lots of over-use of how 'were going to change/influence/make culture'.

You're really not.

With very, very few exceptions, you're going to create stuff that might actually get noticed because it has some relevance and adds some value - a few people might interact with it to amplify your reach, but it's rare you have an Old Spice Guy on your hands.

Even for the people who made the Old Spice Guy.

6.Mistaking what interesting to planners for what is interesting to real people. Thinkbox did some usueful research on the difference between media folk and the public at large, in terms of media habits and consumption.

It's pretty big.

So it the gulf between what media folks think people do and what they actually do. No wonder we see lots of obscure ads with clever references, genius apps no one uses and lots of augmented reality and such left untouched.

Not enough planning folk get the bus, read the Sun or watch Corrie or Keeping with the Kardashians. Our job is not suprise and delight other agency folks, it's to get noticed by people who think Mrs Browns Boys is funny and have never watched Game of Thrones.

7.Seeing the brief and the strategy as the idea. I remember being taught at an APG thingy that a brief is 'your ad to the creative department'.

I dislike this sentiment as it suggests a brief is a piece of craft that should be worshiped all of itself. Most creatives barely read it to be honest. They remember the briefing. It should feel a great start and juicy challenge - the more it feels like a problem to be solved rather than an unchangeable solution, the more folks will want to work on it.

In later years, I've found that a broad direction to talk to media owners is far better than 'give us a price for this'. I'm not as clever as YouTube or the Guardian. Like with creatives, you would be stupid not to take advantage of the brains of some really clever people who REALLY DO influence culture.

I'm talking about good creatives of course. I can't help you with the useless ones who ignore briefs AND can't get any good ideas - yet they are celebrated as untouchable Gods.

Just as there are media owners who come in an bombard you with chart after chart of the bleeding obvious.

8. Competitive planners. Many of us have been brought up to own the thinking. That doesn't work in real practise. Generosity does. That means sharing your thoughts, but also spotting someone else's greatness, using it and fully giving them credit.

That goes for agencies working together. It's tough of course, you want the client to value your input, and it's really annoying when you've had an idea and credit gets lost on the chaos of getting an intregrated campaign out the door. But it's not as frustrating as getting fired when you're seen as not being able to get on with your clients' other partners.

I'm sure folks I've worked with would accuse me of much of the above too, we're all guilty I suppose. I wonder what I've missed (the habit making lists, planners who blog?).

August 04, 2014

They are mostly a waste of time. Unless you want to get buy in from members of an external or external team by making feel part of the idea creation. But that, of course, takes very careful meeting design and a masterclass in moderation.

There's simply too much evidence from all sorts of psychology that they don't work.

I won't bore you with the evidence, but read it here if you're interested. Take it from years of the collective experience of great folks I've worked with - brainstorms should be avoided by the plague.

There is a school of creativity that's about the solid, hard graft of the individual. Start with stuff that that isn't much good, then continuously work out what's wrong with it until you get something ace. Work that emerges, evolves through sheer patience and determination.

But there is an easier way.

If you're in a hurry, take a small amount of people, I mean no more than four, away from the usual office environment for an hour. Clever people who trust each other, with slightly different skills. Present a clear problem and just talk. That's right, a simple conversation.

Because if you trust each other, you don't have to bother with that, 'any idea is a good idea'. You can be honest about what is ace and what is dreadful - and take rejection on board.

Because small teams bounce off each other while big groups stifle.

Because a change of scenery immediately invigorates the brain.

Because it's the sparks that come from people who fill each others gaps that matter.

And in the longer term, talk about the project all the time with the team. It's the conversations that generate ideas. You just need to the awareness and humility to spot when someone else has a great idea, and the generosity to acknowledge it.

And, from a personal perspective, I'm rubbish at thinking in my head, but okay at thinking out loud. The act of writing things down too early destroys my thought process, but talking it through seems to when ideas finally come out of my tiny brain. I literally talk ideas into coming out of their hiding places. I suspect I'm not the only one.

You just need to THEN write them down before they disappear like a puff of smoke.

July 31, 2014

Apparently psychologists have found that the key to a happy marriage isn't the grand gestures and lavish gifts. It's little daily selfless acts, that's what makes up the fabric of good relationships. Which is music to the ears of a tight wad like me.

Obviously, my relationship with my kids is different. You don't have to work at it (but it is work!). It just is. But then again, my little boy is old enough to remember little things and he's a caring little soul.

Hence his insistence that he got to pick blackberries at Grandma's because he knows Daddy loves blackberries on his porridge. He was so pleased with himself when he gave me these, and I just melted.

Happiness isn't free of course, but some things that make you happy certainly are.

July 24, 2014

Really? Does it really matter (apart of course from the fact he had to keep it quiet, now that certainly does matter)?

But some of the footage made me extremely whistful for the pool. Because I don't go swimming that much any more.

I just don't have the time. Because of these two beautiful monsters.

Which means my once a week thrash on a Sunday morning, while the kids have their lessons is that much more precious.

And after watching Thorpe's freestyle stroke, in the recent 'revelation', and realising my arm was coming in the water too low, the last time felt sublime. Even once a week, the simple joy of doing something well, for no reason apart from that, is so precious.

But that's not the end of it. Roughly 33 years of addiction to pain, suffering and the sheer endorphin rush of doing sport to the point where your muscles are running with molten lava and your heart might burst demands to fed.

It's not a recommendation, it's quite the opposite, but by the time you get to forty you realise what is a part of you, like it or not and what is not.

And this obsession is as much part of who I am as Star Wars, tea or and constant fear of not being good enough at my job, or the ever deepening joy of my children.

Enter cycling stage right.

What began as an experiment in grasping at something I liked doing as a teenager, has become an obsession.

To the point where I ride around 20 miles a day as a minumum.

To the point where I can see a justification for my bike costing more than my car.

Much of this is simply the joy finding out I'm sort of okay at it.

A lot is to do with doing something completely knew.

Mostly it's about convenience. Excruciating fitness stuff built into the commute or a Saturday 2 hour blast before family breakfast time.

But it's more than that. It being allowed into a new world.

So much history, legends, myths.

So much of brand stuff is about pretending. You wear an Omega watch and pretend to be Bond. You wear handmade selvedge jeans to feel a bit artisan and bohemian. You buy Chanel to get as scrap of what it must feel like to be Linda Evangalista.

When I get on the bike, it doesn't matter if I'm only doing 40 miles in Yorkshire. I'm in a black and white grainy shot somewhere in the Alps. .

I'm free.

It's no accident that road biking has eclipsed mountain biking by the way.

The archetype of the 'the man of action' in response to the 'other directed man' is one of the constants of marketing to men (and let's get with the 21st century, to women, it should be the 'other directed person') and meant towards the end of the last decade the non-conformist bourgous bohemian to acres of middle class folks. On the mountain bike in slouchy gear.

The rebel.

But with austerity etc, I'm convinced road biking with it's graft and sufferng is to do with the reaction against complacency and relative coolness of discpline and hard work.

And road biking has a timeless 'nobility'.

Me? Swimming gave me a hateful work ethic. I like it hurting and those feel like the clothes road biking gives me out of the pool.

But I do think it's worth thinking about the 'other directed man' in his current incarnation. And what needs are driving big shifts in culture like cycling. Marlboro has a solitary cowboy on his horse. Now he's wearing a helmet a lycra, on a carbon steed.

I also think it's shows how you shouldn't take any buyer for granted. Few love swimming more than me, but things change in customers lives. Culture moves forward too. You need to plan for it.

One of the great joys if riding is that a shy awkward man like me has something to talk about with so many strangers. Men's relationship is side by side, they need an activity to talk about or do. Worth thinking about.

I love that I could chat to so many strangers at the Tour De France. And that our socially stunted Country (or at least Yorkshire) could be happy together for one weekend withour a drop of irony or cynicism. The British are always looking for social ice breakers, especially the blokes.

So I guess cycling and swimming tell you something about me, but also where British culture is at and certainly what glues men together.

July 18, 2014

Maybe because I just love anyone who has Meerman in their name, imagine sounding like a mythical half man/half fish everytime you introduce yourself.

Anyway, I did like the collection of case studies of tactical ads and ideas.

But let's be clear, Newsjacking is not some crossing of the Rubicon for brands, it's not even a bad attempt at it like, say Lovemarks. It's just using current events in the news to do tactical ads.

"The rules have changed. The traditional PR model—sticking closely to a preset script and campaign timeline—no longer works the way it used to. Public discourse now moves so fast and so dynamically that all it takes is a single afternoon to blast the wheels off someone’s laboriously crafted narrative.

Enter newsjacking: the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business"

This has been around for ages, as long as advertising itself. It's just that the best brands do the long term and short term very well - and build a constistent story over time with a big idea with 'width' as well as 'legs'

However, perhaps it's more of use since it's fair to say it's harder to cut through than used to be.

July 17, 2014

I found myself loving the new Silicon Valley comedy. While the satire was a little obtuse, it already feels funny and warm and neatly skewers the hubris of digital folks who claims to saving the world, making it a better or whatever. They're not. Obviously.

It also made me want an advertising version. Mad Men is one of the best, most human dramas of our times, but it's not satire, it's a story about people set in advertising. Of course, no one would care, advertising hasn't a big cultural frame of reference, but thinking about what one would look like would be a useful reality check.

You know, the claims about being curious, wanting to be a creative company rather than an advertising company, claiming to be able to make lots of lots of people care and generally trying to pretend we're not here to make them want to buy stuff they don't really need.

July 16, 2014

I get really uncomfortable if soneone introduces a planner as 'the brains'.

Especially if I'm that planner.

First because of the obvious, I'm not very clever, I just read more and then pass off other people's brilliance as my own.

Second, I get all nervous about the pressure to say something remotely interesting and intelligent, since any colleague who has worked with me will tell you that has rarely, if ever happened.

Third, I just don't believe in putting strategy folks on a pedestal. Just as I don't believe in putting creative folks, digital folks, suits or even (especially) social media gurus on a pedestal. It's about the magic that happens when collaboration happens.

Especially strategy folks actually, as the best thing planners can do is surrender their ego, get involved and liberate other's work, rather than be a barrier.

People don't like planners because they're too clever by half, over complicate things and get in the way of getting great stuff out as efficiently possible.

That means NOT being the brains of the operation or having great, clever ideas, it's about helping others to have them, having the ears and eyes to spot them and the generosity to help them come to life and develop in a way that will work and can be bought by the client.

So I don't think the role of the planner is just to be the voice of the consumer or make sure the work works, it's to make sure great work works. We know the basics by now, reach lots of people, build distinctive memory structures, build fame.

In other words, suprise and delight people. Get great work made that is also right.

July 04, 2014

1. The silky skills of the best suits mean they can deliver negative feedback or outright criticism and make you feel like you just won the lottery. A common trick is taken straight from marriage guidance counselling - deliver five complements in relation to one piece of negative feedback.

2. If someone delivers some great news, some wonderful complements or even heated agreement and then says 'but' we all know they didn't mean a word they just said. I has a junior suit who used to say, "I agree completely, but....". He was a bit of a joke. The cunning suit will say, "I agree with you AND...." Hoodwinking the less subtle of us into thinking they're building on your argument rather than destroying it.

3. They will never speak negatively of anyone behind their back, as they know there is a wierd quirk of psychology that when we do this, the traits we asign to the people we're talking about are actually asigned to us! So what they do instead is pretend to be enthusiastic about the person and find away to be enthusiastic about their deepest flaws. For example, "I love our creative director, it;'s amazing how he managed to overcome that untrue scandal about the scam work". "Oh yes, Jenny, isn't it great how she's managed to not be judged just on the fact her Dad is one a shareholder".

4. They never rise to conflict. No matter how much someone winds them up or tries to shaft them, they kill them with kindness. They evil bastards know that nothing winds an aggressor looking for a fight more than you not wanting them. They know that no one looks more like bigger person in the eyes of others than the one who happily lets others vent spleen and use underhans tactics - they're just extremely cunning in makin sure others know about it (see above).

5. They never win arguments. They always find a way to con you into thinking you got more out of it than you did, or making think you won, when you lost horribly. And they behave in victory in manner more akin to a loser.

6. They let everyone else speak first. They know that excitable creatives, planners and clients can't wait to get their word in. They'll let a discussion run it's course and then insert their point like a rapier precisely when it will the most effect, mostly when everyone is exhausted and can't remember what they were talking about.

7. There are interested. Suits are great at making you feel like the most special people in the world, simply by making you believe they care about what you care about. They can, of course, talk about all sorts of stuff, but they're great at listening a lot, especially when you're talking about things close to your heart. They'll have learned that you love obscure Brazilan cinema and will have developed a working knowledge of it, or got you to teach them.

8. They never flap. Inside. they might be burning and ready to get a McJob rather than deal with the fact Clearcast have just put a big no on the script it took months to develop, or the fact the client won't pay because they hate the work, but they know they need to lead by example and project an aura of calm and optimism which is infectious enough to pull everyone together to solve the task in hand.

9. Suits are devious. They always make sure they know the people that really make agencies tick. That means in creative agencies traffic, and in all places the PA's who are the gatekeepers to directors and such, internally and externally.

June 20, 2014

In this case, it's because a couple of entries slipped through the cracks.

So below is the feedback to Tiffany, who is now joint winner with Samara......

Apart from the Samara, it was only yourself who didn't play around with conventional variations of health. You did something different, that might cut through, that might work.

I love the simple analysis of the problem and the very commercial reality of the limits of distribution alone. In FMCG, one the darkest secrets about 'role for comms' is being seen to promote the brand to secure shelf space.

Few focused on the simple fact that SoBe actually tastes better than the alternatives.

So obviously, the objective is encouraging trial.

I really loved the tension in your insight work of healthy but not the extremes.

And the analysis of how taste works was probably the best single piece of work anyone did in this project. I'll thieve that myself.

If only after that you hadn't diluted all that momentum with much less interesting proposition. I thought you were carving clear water between this brand and everyone else, but 'living well never tasted so good' just seemed a but same old same old. And the imagery next to it seemed very, well Danone .

It's a double shame, because I thought your delivery in this deck was ace. Great pace, great writing, great design.

I didn't really want a proposition, more a great communications task that would bring your clear opportunity to life .That tension between pain and pleasure was interesting and I did wonder if the role for comms was credibly demonstrating the experience in a way that shows you understand and admire your audience. Perhaps showing at moments when 'I know I should but I have a life to live' Or literally turning moments of everyday pain into pleasure.

So I felt just a little let down by the plan too, which felt a little like a sexier version of sampling campaign trying to deliver a little more scale. You were the only person who actually bothered to look at the target's media habits, so well played, but I wanted to seem something that added scale and get the audience talking, as you show they are heavily into social.

And Jay did incredibly well too...

Great you used data to get to a simple challenge

The maths is really persuasive. Now from a personal perspective, I don't usually favor loyalty strategies and I kind of think it would be easier to get lots of light buyers to buy one a year, but as I say, great job at scoping out an opportunity.

I get you can do VERY efficient comms, I also love you're not messing around with brand planning and sticking to the task!

Your insight IS fundamental but is perhaps a little obvious. Light touch health is quite common in a variety of categories. A drill into WHY this is important I think could have unearthed an interesting tension. But I can't deny it's a clear role for comms you have uncovered.

There really is something in 'whatever suits' which fits usage occasion, perhaps there was an opportunity for comms to persuade your audience to do ONE more bit of exercise per week to build frequency.

Also thought there was something in your got milk case study. What is funny about that case study is that it was aimed at consumption - reminding people of all the situations milk was an essential ingredient, which worked to a great degree, but Goodbye Silverstein will probably tell you it really worked by building penetration by making milk cool!!

That said, an simple comms task - whenever you do your kind of exercise, make sure you have SOBE water would have been interesting.

I guess that's the ultimate feedback. There's some great thinking in here and a great piece of maths in framing the growth opportunity. You just need to work harder at saying a little less -a tight story with rich hooks your thinking hangs on. A few killer headlines or sentences .

Rob's feedbackl:

What I like about Jay’s response is he used the available data to identify one clear solution to the challenge.

I don’t know if the ‘Got Milk’ case is the best example given milk and flavoured water occupy very different emotional spaces in our audiences minds, but I get what was being said.

Where it all went a bit wobbly for me was that the solution to this maths assignment was ‘create a brand that is in line with our audiences values’.

Based on what was described, our audience our women who are health conscious who do a bit of physical activity each week.

A bit of investigation into the insight that really defines this audience could have worked wonders for this submission … but sadly, I feel Jay went for the ‘abracadabra moment’, rather than backing it up with a solution that would make it all come together and fulfil the goal that was set out so clearly in the upfront observations.

That said, a couple of nice executional/distribution ideas … but I feel they could have been articulated much more uniquely if they’d understood more about the specific target audience.

So that's it. I'm going to upload all submissions at some point so everybody can have a look and be intimidated by all hard work and pieces of great thinking. I'll let you know when it's up.

June 11, 2014

I'm married. I've learned the hard way that winning arguments is pointless. It's a very hollow victory you can only enjoy yourself why someone else sulks.

All you get is a brief sense of victory followed by a very empty feeling. I don't want to feel like that. I want my wife to feel like that. Which is why one of the core skills of not being a terrible husband is learning how to be wrong.

It's also a core skill for the planner, especially the grown up one who has realised the purist quest for the truth is very lonely journey, for the kind of planner who doesn't care who 'has the thought' as long as the thought is good .

Put another way, no one likes a smart arse, and let's face it, if there's one thing that prejudices folks against planners, it's that. And if you can makes someone feel bad about winning on something you don't care about enough, you've more chance of winning something that matters.

Here are some ways to not only be wrong and use it to your advantage...

Write a bad proposition and know there's a much better one. Dig your heels in a little with the creatives and help them think of the better one for themselves. Worship them for their genuis.

You know that bit of the data you left out to make your argument better? When you realise this is a battle you would better losing, casually bring it into the conversation and let yourself be taken apart and be pleased the argument was solved with evidence because next time you'll use evidence to win.

When you know you are losing the argument, admit you forgot what your actual point was. Let your antagonist put your argument back to together in way that is far kinder than you probably deserve. When they put it back together for you, they might even buy into it.

Never give a ultimatum, just in case someone calls your bluff. For a example, if a planner leaves a meeting, everyone will probably decide stuff quite happily without you complicating stuff.

Pretend you missed what the antagonists have actually said, and you only now fully understand their point. It's likely you were not listening anyway and you can now reframe their point to actually be your point.

You know that think about oversimplifying someone else's argument than destroying it? Like when someone is in favour of national service, "So you're in favour of young men having guns". Over simplify your own and let someone else destroy it. Then overcomplicate theirs, so they don't know what they were talking about, then help them see they were actually all for your original point.

Don't get into debates at all, that what suits or for, let them do it for you. If the problem is the suit, agitate the creatives folks, they hate suits. If it's the creative agency you're working with, never argue over the Polish Cinema reference, just gush how stupid you were to not have thought of that them damn it with faint praise. "Blimey, that's ace, just like Shindler's list but not as depressing, marvellous". Or, "Really great idea, I loved it when you presented it last year too!" Or the media agency, "So great to see that partership with Empire Magazine in the plan again, so consistent".

So, yes, revel in your wrongness. And remember, if you have to win, no one likes a self-righteous prick. Make sure there's a concession in their somewhere. Put another way, smile in someone's face while you stab them in the back.

June 10, 2014

Okay, so on with the individual feedback. Once again, I won't apologise for typos, I need to get this out.

Samara

This was interesting. Great that you had insights that were simple and supported. Great you challenged the convention of this all being about just health, perhaps too many entries were like kids playing soccer, just all chasing the same ball. I liked that you had a clear strategy.

Great that you built your planning from a product truth, without it being dull, that you gave it context. And while trial is not exactly a new task for a drinks communications campaign, I'm glad it was clear.

I engaged with the pen portrait and really got the insight. It's dead simple but also true that the story of an object directly dictates our experience of it.

Perhaps the idea went a little far, perhaps it's a little conventional to have 'from deepest Peru or whatever' but it was still a plan I think that would get people to appraise/re-appraise the brand and product.

I thought you did a great job of creating a plan that addressed specific tasks. I just wish you hadn't made changing the packaging part of it. It costs the earth, probably the entire budget. I thought you missed a trick with the daily routines thing, that might have been a bigger thought. And maybe it's a little bitty, for a penetration job, I wondered if you needed something simpler and more scaleable.

Rob said, "I like that they went beyond ‘health’ and into taste. That’s interesting.

I also like that they had a POV in there that took that ‘taste’ proposition and gave it meaning.

Maybe they went a bit overboard with the ‘geography/origination’ element of their idea … because I think there’s something in simply attacking the brands that say their from ‘a mountain in the deepest part of the Congo, when really they’re bottled in Slough … but I’ll let them go with it"

Richard Duncan

Once again, thanks for framing the goal using data. Great it was boiled down to a clear consumption task. Perhaps you could have surprised a bit, but it's solid!

I got really interested in the performative/not being the best stuff - that felt like some sort of attitudinal tension to play with. While before as well as after seemed like a rock hard opportunity to grow consumption.

And I really liked the light buyers strategy which seemed realistic. Then the implementation feels solid, but I wanted you to give me it in a simpler manner. As it happens, 'be a counseller, not personal trainer' felt like a springboard for the whole strategy. This all felt good, but after establishing the principles, I wanted to see some thinking on implentation. As a client or creative agency, I kind of need to know if you're saying this is TV, all digital or whatever.

Rob said, "I was hoping they would have taken that on more directly – just to see someone come up with a new business plan – but instead they decided to go into the areas that were expected.

That sounds like a criticism, it’s not … it’s just that if this was a pitch and everyone is saying the same thing, then the ‘winner’ is going to be determined by factors that might put you at a disadvantage.

For me, I believe winning is about articulating a strategy that demonstrates your ability to identify unexpected relevance for the client and their problem which you can express in a way that sounds the most sensible decision they could possibly make.

Easier said than done, but building up all the data and then coming out with a solution that sounds category convention, just leads to a feeling of underwhelment. But then I am a cynical fuck.

That said, I loved their insight that ‘people are interested in better, not best’.

That’s great and to be honest, could have been the platform they could have used to really drive the business forward … especially once they detailed how the brands current customers could drive growth on their own"

Will

Ending with your summary is great. This should have been done more. It's critical in a world where we seem to write documents for folks to read, rather than get to talk to them, so having the one pager is really important.

Great naming of a clear audience and articulation of the issue.

I really love the tension you uncover in their lives- being seen to be something they're actually not. So much to play with, do you target the image or the reality? How do play with the tension or even help resolve it?

So I'm excited for commnications role to hit it out of the park and for me, instead it seems you recommend something that doesn't live up to your great insight work and is something any brand could do.

Your framework is solid and well thought out, but I was left disappointed at what might have been!

Rb said he was, "All excited that I was going to see something that really resolved the tension in this audiences mind/lives.....I’d of thought the insight was that this group are continually trying to appear in control when really they are plagued with self-doubt.

Rather than highlighting that, I’d of thought letting them feel they are the women they want to be would be the best way forward.

Less apologetic, more control.

But that’s just me.

I suppose my issue with this is that while I like they articulated an audience, their idea to move forward felt very different in tone to who they were.

Of course, whether that suggested voice was more appropriate for the brand is another debate altogether [as is the fact, like some of the other submissions, they seem to be chasing a new audience rather than leveraging existing customers] … but I guess my issue is they got me thinking this could be different and then ended up feeling quite similar to the others"

Now some more overall observations.

It's quite right to chase penetration in my book, but we were surprised in most cases there was little thinking about how to leverage people already buying. Authenticity, credibilty, it felt involving current buyers was a missed trick. Few thought about what was already working v what they could change.

We also thought perhaps that while every presentation had some great points, some really moments of greatness, in nearly every case, the resulting strategy rarely felt like it was addressing a genuine issue, or an issue was found but the plan didn't do it justice and tended to be just a shade different to what other brands were doing.

On balance, Samara wins, because, the taste and stories idea seemed the freshest challenge to the market conventions on health. Others perhaps had deeper insights, but didn't put them in the back of the net. So well done Samara.

This was a tough task, really hardcore. Well done to everyone for rising to it. But if I could boild my feedback down, it would be simplicity always wins. No need to look clever, say it with passion and intelligence, but make it look cleverer than it needs to be. Trust me, busy clients will thankyou for simple, clear thinking they can repeat to their boss in a few words.

ISSUE

INSIGHT

IDEA

IMPLEMENTATION

Rob said.."but what really stood out to me was that people need to define the real problem more clearly … understand the audience beyond just what they do and articulate a point of view that actually brushes up against the category/competition rather than tries to find a territory that for all intents and purposes, is 2 degrees what everyone else is already doing"

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for all that got involved, If you want more detailed feedback, do email me.

June 09, 2014

(I'm not going to apologise for typos and stuff, I'm want to get this feedback out and for it to be comprehensive)

First, thanks to everyone who entered. This was a hardcore task. Because comms planning IS hardcore. You can't hide behind soft brand buffoonery, you have to roll up your sleeves and deal with some fundamental stuff.

As Rob mentioned, "there are too many people out there who forget our is to drive our clients' business, not just make nice ads"

Some general feedback:

There's nothing wrong with resisting a framework or strategy template, in fact, there's too much process in this business, allowing too many to hide from proper thinking. However, I was surprised at how little folks overtly followed the "issue, insight, idea, implementation' structure. I was looking for strong arguments and support of course, but even where people followed the stucture, there wasn't enough boiling down into a few rich hooks to hang your thinking.

A piece of advice. Right the last slide first, then the first one and finally, THE key slide in the middle that captures the moment of revelation in your presentation. Then populate the links as succinctly as possible.

Also, there was some great thinking and some good points of view, but there seemed to be lots of subjectivity and less simple factual support. It's hard of course doing this for a UK brand if you're not from here, but nevertheless.

Rob said,"a client isn’t going to necessarily respond favourably to (a point of view)if you haven’t got a broader understanding of both the market, the competition and the audience … otherwise they just think you’re either kissing their ass or kicking it.

For me, being subjective only works if you have some data/experience/insight that allows you to frame your opinion from a much more objective point of view … something that either helps frame the real problem they’re facing or can liberate some commercially valuable solution. Easier said than done, but it’s part of the reason we get paid"

I also felt on a number of occasions that folks were looking for brand problems to solve, rather than core issues that were getting in the way of growth. Sometimes that is brand of course, but you need to really spell out WHY.

A couple of people clearly identified a clear issue comms was going to solve, but not eveybody. I often think this is heart of comms planning, if you can get a clear problem for everyone to have a go at, you're most of the way there.

Rob said, "Sure things like ‘branding inconsistency’ and ‘distribution’ are major factors that need to be brought out, discussed and dealt with … but they rarely capture the core issue a brand needs to deal with in the market.

Is the audience right?

Is the audience actually defined clearly.

What role is your brand/product actually playing?

Are their shifts in cultural attitudes & behaviour that you are missing?

Are you being true to who you are or positioning yourself because of a competitors POV?

There’s a bunch of stuff … but when you really drill down, there will be one or two critical factors that ultimately influence or determine everything".

Oh, and we both thought everyone could have worked harder at presenting their argument in a more inspirational way. Designing your charts a little and thinking about telling your story a little more rather than a series of charts.

Have a look at this for reference as to how you might write a deck for people to read, while still maintaining a sense of theatre and careful pace. And we both thought there was too much repeating of the brief. Consider feedback on how you found the brief to work on, and what tensions or challenges were.

So, to the individual entries.

Freya

It's great you did your own research. Great you shared some learnings, but it felt more like your opinion rather than observations of stuff actually happening. Also, I wanted to have ONE killer thought and your idea seemed a bit, 'maybe this'.

I did like how you tried to keep this simple - it's about looking better, embrace vanity, let's not kid ourselves. In fact, once upon a time, I had a similar thought for a female targeted energy drink, but I wanted this developed a little more. Also, perhaps the plan was a bit tactical. we were looking a little more for core jobs comminacation would do. For example, a strong point of view on 'it's about looking good, let's admit it' felt like something with enough energy and talk value for a Youtube content partnership, perhaps provacative TV pointing towards it...take a look at this Selfridges stuff, as much for the shape of the campaign as the idea...

In addition Rob said,"I did like her ‘diabetes’ comment. I was disappointed she reduced it to an ‘ad placement’ because there is something interesting and different in it. Whether it’s interesting or different enough to grow the brand in the way they want it is open for debate … but saying ‘a drink so good for you, even diabetics drink it for energy’ could be very interesting indeed"

Jane and Mike

Great you boil it all down to a clear set of goals. I wanted to show me where the leap from business to marketing objectives had come from though. Clean living is interesting, but I wanted more justification ,especially for a new brand position. Really great you look at what is already working/available, this isn't done enough by very experienced people even, and the four insight buckets work really well. And purity is interesting, as is the insight about not suffereing for health. Something rub against there, a tension to play with.

But then you're proposition loses to opportunity to play with this. Guilt free pleasure feels like a rich toy for comms to play with, I can see all sorts of shapes for creative to become, and media can really go wild with context and need states.

Rob said, "It just doesn’t push against anything. It ends up making the brand seem bland and given their product insight is basically saying ‘this is the brand that stops scaring people into feeling bad about themselves"

There was something far more interesting and pragmatic in there, just waiting to come out.n fact, a task, or statement of intent would have worked a lot better than a proposition, as single minded messaging propositions only really work for the advertising creatives (if then!), this is about a comms task for an interactive team. I thought the customer journey slide and principle of meeting them in their world was helpful, but I wasn't sure you followed the thought through. Adsmart TV for example would be efficient, but it still felt a little like 'talking at people' unless you have a bigger idea for the role of TV -perhaps adding scale to the activation or co-creation pieces?

Pierce and Jeanie

At times I felt there was a lot of opinion, great to have a point of view, but it needed more support.

Great you turned the business task into a human task, but then the task was a bit, "this and this' rather than a fundamental challenge to mobilise on. Now I loved the 'it's water duh!" thought but questiond if folks really are skeptical about miracle products. In the UK, Boots No 7 position is based on miracle products, "Ta Dah".

Great you have a SIMPLE idea, but it felt a little like a TV ad proposition and 'nature is best' doesn't feel that new.

The plan was nice and simple with clear tasks, it made a lot of sense ,but I thought your idea of 'the brand with nothing to hide was interesting' and could have sprinkled more magic dust and innovation. Also, I wasn't sure if their was any media to add sufficient scale or at least more emotive heavy lifting, perhaps a partnership with the Guardian? Brands need a wider enthusiasm and perhaps a genuine conversation around the work/.life balance thing in the 21st century hosted by the Guardian could have been interesting - I'm not saying work life balance is original, but I for one am finding that collaborating with media owners on something simple, but that matters to their readers/viewers can generate great stuff .

Rob said, "They had something in their presentation that I felt could have provided the tension to build brand distinction ["There’s heavy skepticism around miracle products …”], but instead of exploring that further, they decided to say “ … and water remains the purest beverage available” which may be true but:

1 Is open to debate given the current market trend for flavoured waters

2 Seems appropriate to any water brand, not our specific client"

At this point it's worth noting that if you can define your goal, then a find a tension or issue in the lives of your tightly defined audience that relates this, you're most of the way there.

If this was Nike before Just Do It, you'd be saying, "Celebrate the empowering nature of sport in a world where it's unable to live up to the American myth of self-reliance"

Anyway. So far, great work everyone. You've worked really hard and their some wonderful pieces of thinking.I'm not sure you've really made the most of the nuggets when you've got them, in fact many are buried in your decks a little.

May 27, 2014

I went to see Prince on Friday. Utter genius, over two hours of a blistering tour de force. Even if you can't stand him, you couldn't help but admire the talent and showmanship.

Here is a man famous for self indulgence, almost willfuly pissing off his fans at every turn. Yet when gets on stage, none of that matters. Especially when, as was the case this time, he obviously had designed a show meant to be a crowdpleaser. The best loved songs, played in full, without the odd jazz noodlings and frustrating snippets of the past.

Because he seems to have finally understood that enduring success comes down to knowing why people loved you in the first place, and why they might love you now.

That's shouldn't be news to brand owners and creative types, but it kind of is.

If people care at all, it's on their terms, and the reasons they enjoy your product and, if you're lucky, enjoy your advertising or even just recall it for something, won't be anything to do with what's in a brand onion or hidden reference in your 60 second extravanganza.

Which is why it's always more sensible to start with what people care about and work back.

Just as I saw people dancing to 1999 and the more clued up few in raptures over a Sign 0 The Times with real menace, while no one seemed to bother about a very, very small number of newer songs....what is about what you're working that will strike a real cord with people, and what will be over-indulgent, self referential irrelevance?

May 23, 2014

Once upon a time I thought that George Michael was quite a ladies man. I once believed Jimmy Saville was a lovable 'character'. Once upon a time, I thought I would never ever countenance the idea of having children.

I even liked a Queen song once.

So it's sensible to assume that everything you know might be wrong. That was is certain is just your current frame of reference.

It's no different for strategy folks, where it's easy to get taken in by the received wisdom, or what just scratching the surface seems to tell you.

Here's some other stuff I've had to unlearn that's a bit more work related:

1. TV ads don't work anymore. I can't believe I'm still feeling the need to say this, but the effectiveness of TV is going up and the average under 25 year in the UK still watches about 2 hours a night. There are more options these days, but discounting mass broadcast is just dumb, like any other media.

2. But what is even dumber is assuming the answer is any form of advertising anyway. The issue with being paid by project is that you get paid for an output. Being paid a fee for advice means you can advise on the right thing to do, rather than what you've already sold.

3. Digital folks don't get how brands work. Now it's still widely true that if you give a digital agency a hammer, they only see nails, but much of the same can be levelled at ad agencies and such, who think shifting brand metrics is all that matters. The IPA databank tells us that hard business objectives tend to drive success, which is why digital folks with the skills to make people do stuff, rather than make small shifts on Millward Brown perhaps know more about how brands work. Or business, which maybe matters more.

4. Brands are about rational benefits wrapped in intangible meaning. We still want novelty and shortcuts, but digital doo dahs and sheer choice mean we're into tangible difference in brand meaning these days too- added value service and actions over image (Lynx helps actually pull women now, rather than just playing with ironic references to confidence).

5.Creatives are spoiled children. The bad ones are. The great ones are better planners, suits etc than everyone else too, they just get there without the bollocks, and work harder on what real people care about - something that might surprise and delight in the 95% of crap.

6. The mature creative markets like London and New York can teach Asia and co loads. From what I've seen, Asia isn't bogged down by received wisdom and just does stuff like social media much, much better.

7. It's ace working on big brands and famous clients. Many big clients are so process driven it's a nightmare. While the coolest clients are also the most demanding, you do great stuff, but you bleed for it.

8. Blogs are the future. All planners were saying this 10 years ago, then along came Facebook. Which is why assuming you know what media will be like in 1 years from now is ridiculous.

9. One day they'll stop with the 'this will be the year of xxx and the death of xxx' (insert self serving media or latest brand model). It will always be thus- perhaps the only safe prediction!

10. I would never work for a media agency. I am now and increasingly, I'm seeing that's where the innovation is. Great agencies I venerated 10 years ago are looking very, very creaky these days and seem to be fiddling while Rome burns.

May 15, 2014

I love food. If truth be told, after my children and wife, I probably love it more that anything, even swimming, cycling and Star Wars.

It's probably neck and neck with tea and way, way ahead of anything to do with work.

I relish the feeling of hollowness after a long bike ride, because I know I can stuff my face with impunity.

After I finish any meal, I'm already looking forward to the next.

I am greedy, so greedy I'm one of those rare cooks who just don't understand people who say they can't be bothered to eat after slaving over a stove. I can't bloody wait and you can sure anything I cook for you will be ten percent less than its original quantity because I've already eaten in.

May 09, 2014

(this will be full of typos, I don't have time to check stuff these days, not that it was ever perfect)

I been in this industry for more than five minutes and most of that is working in creative agencies of one type or another.

Working in a media agency still means working with creatives, those in other agencies, not to mention the very understandable defensive stance of the suits and planners.

I used to hate media folks trying to own all elements of strategy, how that's come about is a whole post and a half.

Here's some stuff I picked up along the way. It's a little revealing I think, like a detective archetype who sometimes doesn't play by the book, you learn some dark, cunning arts along the way.

In my defense, the end justifies the means.

1. Don't bother writing pithy, well written propositions, the first thing a creative team will do is challenge it. The more like a 'line' it is, the more they'll ignore it. Hide your best thinking in the brief and let them find it for themselves and let them call you a douchebag for not knowing a great proposition when you see it.

2. In fact, don't sweat propositions at all, look for great tasks and problems and insights. As long as you've got good creatives that is. Great creatives want to be given a great problem to solve, bad creatives want a simple proposition that doesn't challenge them too much.

3. Planners are either a necessary evil, or a pointless evil. That is your lot with creatives. Always be looking to liberate others' work, if you're getting the way, you'll get ignored.

4. My best briefs were already half written thanks to an off record chat with the creatives that would be getting it. Not only will creatives work from a brief more if they think they wrote it, the good ones are better planners than the planners, so you might as well steal their cleverness.

5. But be generous with your own ideas. No creative will use your stimulus, creative starters or general opinion on an idea if they think for one minute you'll take credit for anything. They're sociopaths, but I would be too if nearly all my work ended up in the bin.

6. Never be the first to speak in a creative review, in fact, try and get away with saying nothing. New ideas take a little time to get your head around, your first response will usually be wrong. Give yourself time to think about it.

7. If you're a junior planner, or to be honest, a senior one in a new place, the ability to make good tea or coffee will get you a long way with creatives.

8. Don't leave knowledge about execution and craft to suits. Learn about the nightmare that is TV production, casting and going on a shoot. Real people don't care what your brief was, they only care about the fact you've interrupted Game of Thrones and will ignore rubbish. Execution is everything. And the way to make friends is to share interests with people. Creatives care deeply about their craft.

9. Don't tell creatives if a route isn't any good, just don't talk about it, they'll soon get the message.

10. Designers are not creatives, they are brilliant an making stuff look good and perfect. Creatives know how to make people react. If you're in an agency that claims to do creative work, staffed by designers, run a mile. There is no hope.

11. Every creative team is different. Tailor your brief, briefing and entire relationship on what excites them.

12. Creatives hate suits more than planners. Make them think you're on their side (while simultaneously making the suits think you're on their side).

13. Creatives hate workshops. Don't waste your time.

14. You don't have to make the briefing a piece of theatre. Many creative teams simply like a decent, grown up conversation where they're not presented a signed off strategy that can't be changed.

15. Some creatives are ace in front of clients. Some are, erm, not. Get the good ones in meetings, no one sells work like the people who made it.

16. Never lose your temper. The unwritten rule is that creatives can say what they like, you need to keep calm. Angry planners get ignored.

17. They will try do stuff they've see in D&AD. Never call them out on it, just give better stimulus.

18. They're terrified of the blank page at the beginning of a project, they just don't admit it.

19. Creatives directors haven't had a great idea in years. Their job is get others to have them. If you see a creative director with a layout pad, you are in trouble, big trouble.

20. Share great work from other places with creatives, see what they like about and frame your conversations based on this is future. If they say stupid stuff like 'that was great because they didn't show the product' your are fucked.

May 07, 2014

To make sure we give them the attention they deserve, myself, Rob and Gareth will give ourselves until June 9th to share feedback.

One final thing. This isn't about winning. Someone will be judged to have answered the brief in the best manner, but it's about trying and learning. It's about putting yourself out there. Well played to everyone for having a go.

April 16, 2014

I'm away now until May 28th, on the annual Easter pilgrimage to Mum and Dad's in St Ives. My children have been there for a week now, on the beach all day, I miss them very much. The internet is bitter sweet, my wife sends me pictures of what I've been missing, great to see them happy, painful I'm not there.

April 02, 2014

I'll admit it was fun, late night drinking, bungee jumping, shooting and so on.

But there was some serious business too. Seriously great performance to share, even more serious objectives and challenges.

Most of that came from, and would continue to come from a stroke of luck with in-costs, brilliant productivity and canny distribution and innovative NPD.

Not brand equity, not advertising. Hard business.

I'm not devaluing what we do by the way, but it's very sobering to be reminded of the real role of 'brand' and 'advertising'. It's one of many, many fundamental pillars of business growth.

I was humbly reminded what we do is about 10% of what clients actually do. No wonder they don't always answer the phone, get excited about the Polish cinema reference in the TV ad or go bananas on making that nice to have Snapchat thingy go live. They've other stuff on.

That's right, our stuff is not the be all and end all, it's a tenth of it at best. Clients do all sorts of stuff I can't do and don't want to do.

If you've ever had to deal with a supermarket buyer, you'd be thankful it's a regular feature of your day job for example.

A trick of getting insight into customers is to find something to admire in them. I venture that's at least as important with clients. People who actually make and sell stuff, people who get complex things to market, not just words, pictures and the odd event.

And as the performance of this client shows, they're at least as good, if not better at their 90% than I am at my 10%.

March 25, 2014

I hated being made to do presentations when I was younger. I still do to be honest. Because I'm shy, dislike big crowds and am not a natural orator.

I also share a personal truth, I moved from being a suit to planner and always have this nagging doubt I'll get found out as not a real strategist. Despite many years doing the job and not doing too bad overall.

But that's actually quite a good place to be. Because confidence is massively over-rated.

The human brain is a sneaky little bastard and cons us into all sorts of un-truths about how we percieve ourselves and our skills. It also helps us make mistakes about others.

Con-trick number one is that human beings are chronicly guilty of over-stating their aptitude and skills. Most people would agree they are above average in attractiveness, when of course, most people statistically cannot be. Experiments run with chess players have shown most believe their actual skill is better than the ranking they have.

Even scarier, the LESS experienced and accomplished you are, the more likely you are to over-estimate your brilliance. In other words, that Arthur Conan Doyle quote was spot on "Mediocrity knows no higher than itself, but talent instantly recognises genius" .

That's a problem in this industry that tends to celebrate the young and new. Of course, young turks shake everything up and challenge the complacent out of their comfort zone, but we shouldn't forget that it's axiomatic for novices to think they're better than they are. They need help for reality to bite.

It's also a problem for regional agencies in the UK and people that have never worked anywhere really good (I don't mean a the right name over the door, just, well good).

The new business director who got the job through politics and thinks they are a strategist.

The creative director who has only worked on logos and has landed the job in an integrated agency.

The small agency that has only worked with small clients and think they can take over the world.

But also the agencies with the Shoreditch address, who mistake post code for greatness.

And if you believe you're ace, you won't take constructive feedback too well, you'll take on too much, you might even suffer from a dose of arrogance. You won't learn. But if you have the fear, you'll be great because you'll never allow yourself to mistake good for great, or make an avoidable error.

What's worse, is that we naturally believe in confident people too. It's not what people say, it's how they say it. In an industry full of self-confident showmen, you can imagine the amount of bad advice that get's through because of how it's delivered. I personally get through the confidence barrier by making people see I care, and because of endemic self doubt, preparing more and working harder.

And then there is the danger of confidence in information. Confirmation bias. We tend to make the information fit our point of view. We see patterns in things that are mere coincidence. Which is slightly scary when interpreting research. It's why religious folks see the Virgin Mary in a slice of toast, and people with arthritis think their dodgy hip hurts more when it's going to rain, when they only remember the times it rained and their hip hurt, rather than the occasions it didn't.

But confirmation bias can be used for your own ends of course, if you give into the temptation of dirty planning.

When you know what the suit, creative or client tends to like, their values and belief system, you can hone the argument for your thinking and how it's delivered to make them see what they want to see.

Anyway, I'm saying that confidence is a false God.

Not believing in youself too much will make you more effective.

Getting out of your comfortable little frame of reference is a must.

Don't look for people who will agree will you. Look for the awkward folks who will challenge everything.

Not falling for over-confident colleagues will stop the team selling over-polished, badly thought out work.

And being hard on yourself will help you avoid confirmation bias and stop seeing the Virgin Mary in research data that means nothing - but it can also help you sneakilly get stuff through.